installing vista on a computer with no OS

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Any ideas of what to do if a computer with a newly installed hard drive says
"No boot sector on hard disk" when turned on. I'm trying to install vista and
it won't recognize the disk.
 
I did set to boot from CD/DVD first, but the installation screen never comes
up... rather than saying "press any key to boot from CD" like I think it's
supposed to, it just comes up and says "no boot sector on hard disk"
 
The hard drive is most likely corrupted. Go to the hard drive manufacturer
web site and then download hard drive utilities, then create either a
bootable floppy if you have a floppy drive, or a bootable CD. Partition and
format the drive. After having done this, try installing Vista again..


jpotts818 said:
Any ideas of what to do if a computer with a newly installed hard drive
says
"No boot sector on hard disk" when turned on. I'm trying to install vista
and
it won't recognize the disk.
Click to expand...

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/
 
Is it possible for the hard drive to be corrupted when it is brand new? It
was just installed and installing Vista has been the very first thing we
tried to do with it.
 
If this is a brand new hard drive installed as the only/first hard drive and
the BIOS is set to boot from it then 'no boot sector' is correct. A drive
from the manufacturer is empty, no boot sector or anything else.

It is necessary to partion and format the hard drive before it can be
'booted'. That would be done during the installation process of your OS.

To install your OS from the DVD you must go into your BIOS and set it to
enable booting from the DVD drive. Exact steps to do this vary from machine
to machine. However during power on there is usually some indication to
press some button on the keyboard to enter some 'setup' program. Within this
setup program should be something about booting or boot order. Within this
there should be an ability to enable the various source devices (i.e. DVD
drive) and to adjust the order in which they are tried. Enable the DVD
drive, leave as second in order to the main hard drive. During boot it will
fail to find a boot sector on the hard drive and then try the DVD, which for
Vista has a boot sector and you should be off and running.

Michael
 
Incorrect; you set your CD/DVD as number one(1)
you do not have bios looking to your hard drive 1st if you are trying to
boot from a CD, lol
 
jpotts818 said:
Any ideas of what to do if a computer with a newly installed hard drive
says
"No boot sector on hard disk" when turned on. I'm trying to install vista
and
it won't recognize the disk.
Click to expand...

Do you have some other bootable disc, like a BartPE or ultimate boot disc or
WXP install disc with which to verify that your BIOS really is set up to
boot from CD?

-Paul Randall
 
Mick,

Under the conditions specified by the OP you do want Hard disk first, then
DVD.
Because the hard disk at present does not have a boot sector, the first
stage will fall to booting from the DVD. the Vista DVD will partion, format,
place boot sector on the hard disk, then transfer its files to the hard disk
and perform a reboot. This second time will find the boot sector and boot
from the harddisk, the installation will proceed from there.
If you set it up DVD first, then harddisk when it comes time for the second
phase the OP must remember to remove the DVD from the drive or it will boot
from there again rather than the hard drive (Instruction to the user do say
remove the DVD but who pays attention the first time :) ).

After Vista is setup you can no longer boot from the DVD (a good thing) till
you do set the boot sequence to DVD then Hard disk as you note. If you leave
it as DVD -> Hard disk then boot time will be sightly increased as it tries
to find a boot sector on the DVD. If you leave it hard disk -> DVD and the
hard drive again becomes unbootable the OP can again boot from the DVD for
maintenance without reverting to BIOS changes again.

Normally I would agree that DVD -> hard drive is necessary for upgrading a
system with a functioning hard drive boot sector, this case was a bit
special in that it was a brand new hard drive without a boot sector.

Michael
 
Michael, i have put a lot of OEMs on new hard drives in my life. And I always
set bios to boot from CD/DVD first.
And it works.
 
Sorry, but you do not put the virgin hard drive first when trying to install
from the DVD drive, UNLESS there is a boot time option to override the BIOS
boot order.
 
John Barnes said:
Sorry, but you do not put the virgin hard drive first when trying to
install from the DVD drive, UNLESS there is a boot time option to override
the BIOS boot order.
Click to expand...


Why not? It works. Have you tried it? When no boot sector is found the
machine just skips to the next item listed in the boot order.
 
Yes I have. I get the same message the OP got.

Seth said:
Why not? It works. Have you tried it? When no boot sector is found the
machine just skips to the next item listed in the boot order.
Click to expand...
 
Yes I have. I get the same message the OP got.
Click to expand...

Then I doubt it was a "naked" hard drive.

I've done this procedure hundreds of times. The benefit is by doing it this
way you do not have to then go back into BIOS to change the boot order later
on to protect the machine from accidently booting off of a CD/DVD that could
wipe the system out.
 
It was, as the OP stated for his, a new hard drive. Whether it was 'naked'
I will leave up to peeping Seths. With that BIOS I had to put the DVD
player first to avoid the message. Enough said.
 
uhaligani said:
Why would a DVD on boot "wipe the system out" My bios has been set, for
as long as I can remember, to boot the DVD first. I have often
forgtotten to remove a DVD and the bios has automatically gone to my
next option. (HD) Maybe there is a difference in different bios chips,
but my computer boots up on a USB external drive or on the DVD alone,
without a Hard disk being present.
P.S. I would imagine Jrpotts has gone to another site for his answer by
now.
Click to expand...


Depends on the CD/DVD.

- a non-bootable CD/DVD will be skipped over and the next item in the boot
order will be tried

- a Microsoft created bootable CD/DVD (like for installing an OS) will boot,
but then present a prompt (if an OS is detected on the HD) to "Press any key
to boot from CD/DVD". If nothing is pressed it will exit and pass along to
the next device in the boot sequence.

- Some "other" bootable disk might just immediately go into an install
routine. That's where the danger lies and why it's not considered "good
practice" to leave your system as set to boot from the optical drive first.
 
uhaligani said:
Thanks for thatinfo (?) I have been around computers for25 years. Whic
OS have you in mind that will go into an automatic install routine.? I
confess I do not play too much with Linux - maybe one of those
varieties. In any of the cases, the install program would have to ask a
few questions to know where to proceed and would stop long before any
damage was done.
Click to expand...


No "mainstream" disks off the top of my head.

But I work in the corporate world and it is not uncommon for automated
installation routines to be bootable/no questions asked routines. Last year
when I was upgraded the servers in 900 retail stores, rather than visiting
each store I had a bootable disk that would do the rebuild start to finish
with no user intervention. All the servers were pre-set to HD boot first.
We would just mail the disk to the store and have them pop it in the drive
when received. Even if the server had to be bounced, it would continue to
boot from the HD. When the time came for them to be upgraded, an AT job ran
in the middle of the night which told the BIOS to do a 1-time boot from
optical. The rebuild kicked off on the 1 time boot, and each boot after
that was back to the HD.

The disk was removed and discarded at a later date.

Also, someone malicious could make a bootable disk and hide it in the ISO
for something else one might download. If it's left in your drive overnight
and Windows Update is set to automatic you could wake-up with a formatted
drive.

For these reasons, none of my machines are set to boot optical first.
 
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